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Tuesday, November 29, 2016

#WeirdEd Week 129- No Ideas

Welcome to The Time of the Year, at least for some of us. That special time between Thanksgiving break and Christmas break that's just long enough to do something cool but not quite long enough to do something cool. Just a few weeks. And the Space can set in. The kids are spacing, we're spacing, it's hard sometimes to push through the holiday break. We've been pushing hard since the start of the year and there's a pretty significant part of our brains that is positive the school year just started, like, three weeks ago. How could it possible that it's already almost December? There's so much I haven't taught yet.

Anyway, it's easy for the tank to be running a little dry about now. And for good reason. So let's talk about that feeling. Sometimes talking over something together makes it easier, and gives us the boost we need. Note the difference between this and a bitch session. Those allow negativity to grow and fester, they celebrate the things we don't like. This is a coming together, an understanding, and a moving forward.

We aren't the only ones who might be running out of ideas. Kids do too. How often have you assigned something thinking, "This is so creative! They'll get to share their voices! Look at the freedom I'm giving them!" *five minutes pass* "Mr. Robertson, I don't know what to do/say/write." And we remember that original ideas are hard and getting started can be harder than that. There's so much fear and apprehension involved in adults and kids in starting something or following some thread. These are things that can be taught. Must be taught.